


homecoming

by ignitesthestars



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Friends to Lovers, M/M, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-15
Updated: 2016-05-15
Packaged: 2018-06-08 15:32:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6860854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ignitesthestars/pseuds/ignitesthestars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Homecoming is a promise. </p><p>Not a threat. A threat requires uncertainty - <i>if</i> you don’t do this, <i>that</i> will happen. There is no if in the eighth of ten trigger words. There is nothing but the ninth to come, and the tenth after that. </p><p>But homecoming is a couple of other things, as well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	homecoming

Homecoming is a promise.

Not a threat. A threat requires uncertainty - _if_ you don’t do this, _that_ will happen. There is no if in the eighth of ten trigger words. There is nothing but the ninth to come, and the tenth after that.

And then there is nothing at all.

* * *

Homecoming is a wish.

It’s fumbling with a penknife and a stub of pencil, trying to get the damn thing sharp enough to be legible on paper that’s a little too damp, and then trying not to tear holes in it. It’s forcing his hand steady as he lies to his sister about the war.

It’s stalling over the page as he thinks of Steve getting his ass kicked back in Brooklyn, and can’t decide what to tell him. The truth - the mud and the blood and the men dying of dysentery at the same rate as gunfire. Let him know he’s missing out on fuck all, that the glory he’s dreaming of only exists in those dreams.

The lie - to protect those ideals. God knows Steve deserves to have something to hold onto.

The truth - _miss you, buddy_.

The lie - _see you soon._

* * *

Homecoming is an idiot.

It’s knowing he’s going to die and trying to make his peace with that and failing miserably. It’s his mind lingering on one face as he’s strapped to a damn table while explosives rain hell and anger pours through him with it at how fucking unfair it all is.

It’s that same face - but not the same, not exactly - appearing out of nowhere and being above him, somehow, even once the strapped-to-a-table thing is a non-issue.

The thing is, once he’s back at base and the whole story comes out, he’s not even surprised. It’s beyond fantastical, it beggars belief, but if anyone was going to get injected with a super soldier serum and dump himself into the middle of a warzone to save his sorry ass--

Steve Rogers. Steve Rogers is the one person in the world idiot enough to pull that off.

Or at least, the one person in _his_ world.

* * *

Homecoming is a fight in a cramped stairwell, a strange and brutal synergy crackling between him and the idiot. Steve, who had newspapers in his shoes and needs to learn how to let go.

It’s knowing he can throw a man off that stairwell, and that the man will be caught. It’s knowing that he only has to watch his back for one person, because that one person is already covering it.

It’s even knowing that person isn’t going to give up, no matter how hard he tries to get away.

Later, it’s that person clinging to a damn helicopter. Seriously, Rogers, what the hell.

* * *

Homecoming is--

 _he’s my friend._ It’s a shield driven through an arc-reactor. It’s an arm around his shoulders, even though his is gone and he’s useless now.

It’s everything he doesn’t deserve

* * *

It’s something he gets anyway.

* * *

The first thing Bucky becomes aware of is the beeps. _Vital signs_ some distant, robotic part of his brain interprets, and the animal part of him stills, stiffens. Coming out of cryo seems gentler this time, but all that means is another advance in technology, another jump in time and the same words all over again. He struggles, before the first one ( _longing_ , some other part of him supplies, which is just another word for the fruitless hope that maybe this time, _this time--_ ) can hit.

Only to find he’s not restrained.

For a moment, bewilderment replaces everything. Even the beeps. This is a test. A trick.

“Hey, Bucky, Bucky, it’s all right. You’re safe. Look at me, you’re safe.”

Bucky looks. _It’s Steve_ , he thinks, and there’s no pain with the thought. No punishment. Slowly, uncertainly, his memory starts to creep in. Like it’s not quite sure if it’s allowed to be there or not.

“...Thought you were supposed to keep me on ice,” he says finally.

Steve grins. It’s a tired thing, but inexorable at the same time. Like the world keeps coming back to this

“You know me,” the idiot says. “Never was one for rules.”

* * *

Homecoming is the eighth of ten trigger words that don’t fucking work anymore.

* * *

Homecoming is a kiss. It’s the scratch of stubble, of two bodies coming together hard enough to hurt anyone else, but not them. Not this.

It’s two men and a future that, impossibly, still exists.


End file.
